Are you having trouble accessing sites like Amazon, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, or countless other services? Rest assured, you aren’t imagining it.
The Live Chat at Wealthy Affiliate is buzzing with the news! And I can’t even get to Canva right away to create the thumbnail for this post!
So what’s going on??
According to multiple online sources , on October 20, 2025, a major cloud‑incident swept across the internet, rooted in AWS’s US‑EAST‑1 region, and exposed how much of the web is built on top of one provider.
Here’s what you need to know and especially how this matters if you run a website, blog, or online business.
Table of Contents
What Happened
- At around 12:11 AM PDT, AWS confirmed it was “investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US‑EAST‑1 Region.”
The Verge - By 12:51 AM PDT, the update read: “We can confirm increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US‑EAST‑1 Region… we are actively engaged and working to mitigate the issue…”
The Verge - The outage spread widely, sites and services that rely on AWS underneath, including streaming platforms, apps and even smart devices, were knocked offline or slowed significantly.
The Verge+1
Why This Matters for Website Owners
If your site or blog is hosted on AWS (or uses services backed by AWS), here’s what this outage brings to light:
- Single‑point dependency: Although AWS is huge and resilient, when a major region like US‑EAST‑1 goes down, the ripple effects are massive.
- Buffer traffic & failover: If visitors can’t access your site or if your affiliate links fail at a critical time, you lose revenue.
- Transparency & status tracking: You’ll want to monitor your hosting provider status pages (and even independent monitors) to stay ahead when things go wrong.
- Build with redundancy in mind: While not always feasible, consider caching, backup hosting, or alternate DNS to reduce downtime risk.
What You Should Do Right Now
- Check your hosting and service provider – Are you dependent on AWS (even indirectly)?
- Review your backup / DR plan – If your site goes offline, do you have a way to show a friendly “maintenance” or fallback message to users and maintain brand trust?
- Monitor traffic and affiliate links – Check if your earnings or traffic dropped during the outage period; if yes, consider alternate routes.
- Sign up for status alerts – For example, use the AWS Health Dashboard or third‑party monitors like StatusGator for early warnings.
The Big Takeaway
The internet can feel invincible but even the largest cloud backbone can suffer outages. If you are building an online business (affiliate blog, niche site, or e‑commerce platform), this outage serves as a wake‑up call: plan for the occasional disruption, not just normal operations.
If you’d like a deeper dive on how I build affiliate‑driven sites (including redundancy, hosting choices, and traffic resilience), you can check my detailed review of the platform I use below: 2025 Wealthy Affiliate Review: The All‑In‑One Platform for Online Business
A sharp and timely reminder of how fragile our digital infrastructure really is. Marlinda, you’ve turned a technical incident into a practical guide for website owners. From understanding single-point dependencies to building redundancy and monitoring tools, this post is a must-read for anyone serious about running an online business.
Un rappel percutant et d’actualité sur la vulnérabilité de notre infrastructure numérique. Marlinda, tu transformes un incident technique en guide concret pour les propriétaires de sites. De la dépendance à un seul fournisseur à la mise en place de solutions de secours, ton article est une lecture indispensable pour toute personne investie dans un business en ligne.
Lanicheduclip
Hey Claude,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment! I’m glad the post helped highlight the bigger picture beyond just the outage itself. It’s easy to overlook how much we rely on single systems until something breaks.
Do you use any specific tools or strategies to keep your site prepared for disruptions like this? I’m always interested in learning what’s working for others in the space.
— Marlinda
This article was a real eye-opener. I’m just starting my online business, and honestly, I hadn’t given much thought to where my site was hosted, let alone the risk of a provider-level outage. Framing this as a “business continuity” issue rather than just a “tech problem” really hit home.
Your section on the immediate steps to take was super helpful. It feels like an insurance policy I didn’t know I needed. This has definitely motivated me to prioritize understanding my hosting setup and ask the right questions. Thanks for making a complex topic so accessible.
Hi Cian,
I’m so glad the article was helpful! You’re absolutely right, thinking of outages as a business continuity issue instead of just a tech glitch really shifts the perspective. It’s something I didn’t fully grasp at first either, but once you start treating your website like a real business asset, the risk management side becomes a priority.
One thing I’ll add is that if you’re a Premium Plus+ member at Wealthy Affiliate, they actually provide daily website backups as part of the hosting package. That kind of safety net can make a huge difference when something outside your control, like an AWS outage, takes a site down temporarily.
Sounds like you’re on the right track by asking those deeper questions early. Keep going, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you ever want to chat about setup or strategy!
— Marlinda
Just read the article about the Amazon Web Services outage — wild to see how one region glitch can ripple across so many sites. It hit me that I’ve never really checked if my blog or side-project relies on AWS (even indirectly), so that point about “single-point dependency” really resonated. The author’s advice to have backups or alternate DNS is solid — guess I should actually act on it. Anyone else think this kind of event should push us to stop trusting “we’ll never go down” for anything online?
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for reading and for such a reflective comment. You’re absolutely right, it’s easy to assume our sites are covered until something like this reminds us how fragile the web can be. That ripple effect really exposed how much we all rely on just a handful of services, even when we think we’re diversified.
These kinds of outages should be a wake-up call to take things like DNS redundancy and regular backups seriously, not just as “nice to haves.” Yet another feature I like about WA’s Premium Plus+ membership in that it includes daily backups for when technology fails.
— Marlinda